TV Time Capsule
Each month, Central Illinois' On-Line Broadcast Museum will update views of TV station listings as they appear in either the local publication of TV Guide or regional newspapers. The examples will include the TV station's published listings from central Illinois TV stations with explanations of any points of interest in those listings.
The Week of
December 7-13, 1968
(Saturday-Friday)
Robert Morse and E.J. Peaker are on the cover of this week's featured TV Guide. Robert Morse is probably best known for playing the role of J. Pierrepont Finch in "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," the hit 1961 Broadway play that got him a Tony Award. He received a second Tony for playing Truman Capote in the one-man play "Tru" in 1988. Morse expanded his career into television and picked up two Drama Desk Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Other films he starred in include "The Matchmaker" (1958), "The Cardinal" (1963), "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967).
At the time of this TV Guide cover, he was starring in "That's Life" for ABC with E.J. Peaker (pictured above on TV Guide). That series aired for part of only one season from September 1968 through May 20, 1969. It was a unique and different type of sitcom/variety show that included many guest stars in a series of sketches that revolved around the romance and early married life of a young couple, Robert Dickson and Gloria Quigley Dickson, played by Morse and Peaker.
E.J Peaker has starred in feature films, beginning with "Hello Dolly" (1969) with her final movie "The Last Producer (2000). Peaker's TV credits include "Route 66," "Occasional Wife," "That Girl," "The Odd Couple," "Love American Style," "The Rockford Files," "Charlie's Angels," "Hunter," and dozens of other appearances.
E.J. Peaker is now 80, while Robert Morse died at the age of 90 in 2022.
Points of Interest From the Schedule Above
Monday, December 9, 1968
Looking back over 56 years, the TV channel lineup in TV Guide shows that mid-Illinois TV was established and pretty stable at this time. However, it wasn't as quiet as it looked as one future TV station prepared to go on the air. That wouldn't happen until August of 1969. That station was WJJY-TV, Channel 14, in Jacksonville, Illinois. It was an ABC station for western Illinois. We were still over a decade away from the beginnings of independent TV stations WBHW, Channel 55 in Springfield, WCCU, Channel 27 in Urbana, IL., WBLN, Channel 43 in Bloomington, IL, and WFHL, Channel 23 from Decatur, IL.
High-powered UHF transmitters were appearing across mid-Illinois, with improvements already made at WICS and WAND and even more power increases the decade after. Within a couple of years, the 1958 1,000-foot tower of WICS would be replaced by a 1500-foot monster tower. The WAND studio tower had already been replaced by another one located in the center of the mid-Illinois market near Argenta and Oreana.
Two years earlier, WICD, Channel 15 would build a tower only to see it toppled by an ice storm in January of 1967, even before it went on the air. That tower was quickly replaced and redesigned to tolerate even more ice weight in the later years that would topple a couple of other mid-Illinois towers in 1978. Plains Television Partners, owners of WICS, WCHU (Channel 33-Champaign), and WICD (Channel 24-Danville), had already increased its coverage areas to include even more of the mid-Illinois market from Jacksonville, Illinois, into West Central Indiana. The goal of each station group was to increase the number of households they served throughout the region and match, if not increase, the potential households of the only commercial VHF station in the market, WCIA, Channel 3-Champaign.
Even with its vast coverage area since going on the air in 1953, WCIA still had a gaping hole over the state capitol. Late summertime heat inversions made it difficult, if not impossible, for viewers in that area and other outlying areas to receive an adequate and dependable signal from the lower-frequency VHF station. Just a few years earlier, WCIA applied for and received the allocation for Channel 49, moving the allocation for Channel 49 from Jacksonville to Springfield to rebroadcast the signal of WCIA on a lower-powered transmitter. That would give viewers in Springfield a class-A signal of WCIA, and the tower placement, near the placement of the WICS tower, made it easier for those with an antenna aimed to the east to receive all the signals without having to use a rotor to shift the aim of the antenna.
The reception of some of these channels still requires translator stations, or satellite stations, that rebroadcast the signal of the master station to reach other cities in the region. Peoria stations have continued using translators since the early 1960s for the LaSalle-Peru area for stations WEEK (translator station Channel 35) and WMBD-TV (translator station Channel 71). WICS would continue to use a translator for its signal in the Mattoon area on channel 75 despite having the new WICD, Channel 15, Champaign broadcasting at 100 kW within 50 miles.
With WAND's improvements just a couple of years before this TV Guide edition, the translator station located in Champaign-Urbana was discontinued. Even with that late 1960s power increase and tower relocation, WAND could not reach the Danville area with a good signal. Eventually, WAND's original lower-powered translator transmitter in Champaign was moved to Danville, with an antenna on the tallest building in town, broadcasting on Channel 70. When the FCC deleted the channels above 70, the transmitter was re-tuned for channel 68.
Also, by the time of this publication, most local TV stations could broadcast local programs, including local news, in color. All the TV stations could also show film and videotape in color, while some filmed commercials remained in black and white. Newsgathering in the field included the use of color film. The Terre Haute stations, WTHI and WTWO, still broadcast local news in black and white, including the "Santa" shows at 3:30 pm (4:30 pm ET) on both stations.
Each network broadcasts a nearly complete daytime schedule. The exception was ABC. You'll notice that WAND-Decatur filled the morning programming with cartoons and a country music syndicated program called "Ranch Party." WIRL-Peoria didn't sign on until 8 am. Later in the morning, both stations would program the syndicated franchise preschool program "Romper Room." That would be followed by "The Dick Cavett Show" and black and white off-network reruns of "Bewitched." CBS also aired black and white former primetime sitcoms such as "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Andy Griffith Show." The daytime schedule of NBC was stocked well with many game shows, while WICS/WICD aired the 90-minute syndicated talker of Merv Griffin.
Late afternoon, locally produced kids' programming was still a "thing" at WEEK with "Captain Jinks," although local kids' programming was extinct everywhere else. Off-network syndicated programming still could be attractive to young viewers, as WAND aired "Dennis the Menace," followed by "Gilligan's Island." WMBD-TV aired "Dennis the Menace" and "The Flintstones." Meanwhile, WCIA aired "The Flintstones" at 5 pm after their popular afternoon movie block, "Dailing for Dollars."
Another curious thing in the Terre Haute market was the sharing of programming from ABC. Only CBS and NBC were represented as the primary networks for WTHI-TV and WTWO. Both stations coordinated an effort as secondary ABC affiliates, so many primetime shows were videotaped and shown in other time slots. That's why "Land of the Giants" was seen at 4 pm (or 5 pm ET) on WTWO on Mondays.
Late-night programming combines network entertainment talk shows with off-network reruns. Other than "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," there was only "The Joey Bishop Show" on ABC as fresh programming. This was followed by syndicated movies or off-network reruns on WAND and WIRL while the NBC affiliates signed off at Midnight (or 1 am ET). The CBS affiliates had more choices and better local advertising possibilities. Airing syndicated programming allowed those stations more flexibility to air many more local commercials, increasing their cash flow.
One thing to bring up regarding syndicated reruns: they looked much different than the same programs do now. At the time of this TV Guide, local stations still used a film chain that projected a 16mm film print into a TV camera. Those syndicated films were often used and reused in projectors that scratched or would tear or break the film. The guide sprockets in well-used projectors would wear the sprocket holes larger in the film, allowing it to shake as it ran through the various projectors. Obvious splices of the film would break later, or dust, hair, and other foreign materials would obscure the images from time to time.
These syndicated shows are now imaged from the original 35mm master films and digitally restored to a quality better than what was initially shown in standard def. They are not on videotape but are digital video files from a server or hard drive.